Programs by Location

Ireland

29 Nov 2009

Wendy Barnaby travels to Ireland to investigate some of the many issues arising from this year's Ryan Report. The Report is about conditions suffered by children in institutions between the 1930's and the 1990's. The twenty institutions examined were part of a larger system established by the State but run by Catholic orders.

This [series episode segment] has and transcript

20 Sep 2009

On 15 August 1969 the UK prime minister Harold Wilson ordered British troops to Northern Ireland in response to public protest against the Northern Irish government's crackdown on the Civil Rights movement in the province. Years of violent conflict ensued. Now, 40 years on, British troops are still in Northern Ireland, and while much has been achieved in bringing about justice and peace, there remains the threat of violence.

transcript

12 Dec 2004

Irish poet Medbh McGuckian,one of the truly original voices in present-day English language poetry, reads a selection of her poems and talks about her poetic invention in relation to her own religious understanding.

transcript

25 Dec 2001

What is the connection between landscape and spirituality? The enormous appeal of Celtic spirituality seems to be grounded in some kind of magical mystical landscape,a landscape that is pristine and pure ... in some respects a little like the magical mystical landscape of aboriginal spirituality. When he was in Australia recently Celtic spirituality writer, John O'Donohue, spoke to fascinated audiences. This Encounter explores the making of John O'Donohue, Celtic phenomenon, and the tensions that might be the stuff of an Australian spirituality.

This [series episode segment] has and transcript

7 Jan 2001

Jonathan Swift, Yeats, O'Casey, Wilde and Beckett were all members of the Church of Ireland. Once the country's established church, it has been struggling to maintain membership in the Republic since Irish Independence and in the North it is greatly outflanked by Presbyterianism and even Orangeism. But in "Celtic Tiger", pluralist Ireland, with a Catholic Church in defence mode, the Church of Ireland sees an opportunity. It's the "middle way", it claims, between Papist and Protestant.

transcript

1 Nov 1998

On the 200th anniversary of the 1798 rebellion in Ireland, and against the background of threats to the security of the Belfast Agreement bringing about peace in Northern Ireland, Encounter explores the lost promise of the 1798 alliances between Protestants and Catholics for the sake of a united Ireland.

23 Mar 1997

'Celtic spirituality' is a spiritual phenomenon of the moment - but what does it mean, why is it attractive to diverse people (perhaps particularly women)? What are its roots - and anyway is there any such thing as Celtic?

12 Mar 1995

A program to mark St Patrick's Day, a reflection with the help of four Irish women, on the ways things change and the ways they stay the same. It's a time of great social change, against a background of continuing political challenge. The women are poet Nuala Ni Dhomnaill, sculptor Marie Foley, writer Maire MacEntee, feminist activist Ailbhe Smyth.